ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,546,535, issued on Feb. 10, was assigned to TAIYO NIPPON SANSO Corp. (Tokyo).

"Apparatus for producing inorganic spheroidized particles and method for producing inorganic spheroidized particles" was invented by Yoshiyuki Hagihara (Tokyo) and Yasuyuki Yamamoto (Tokyo).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "One object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for producing inorganic spheroidized particles which can significantly reduce the amount of warming gas generated and suppress the generation of soot during combustion. The present invention provides an apparatus (10) for producing inorganic spheroidized particles, including a burner...